Although applicable in principal to any system that measures RF signals, the present invention and its underlying problem will be hereinafter described in combination with probe chambers or probe stations for wireless communication devices.
Modern communication devices may be used in a plurality of applications. Such communication devices may e.g. be used in conversation systems, like e.g. mobile telephone systems. Further such modern communication devices may also be used e.g. in IoT applications (Internet-of-Things), in sensors and/or actuators, or the like.
Such devices will primarily communicate via a wireless interface and may e.g. use LTE, 5G, WLAN/WIFI, ZigBee, Bluetooth communication interfaces or any other type of wireless communication interface that adequately suits the respective application. The wavelengths of the respective communication signals may e.g. be in the centimeter or millimeter range.
During development or production or later conformance testing of such communication devices, specific tests have to be performed with the communication devices. Such tests are needed to make sure that the communication device complies with the respective legal and/or standards related regulations.
For performing the respective tests, complex mechanical test structures or devices are usually used, that e.g. comprise a robot arm that moves a probe around a device under test to receive the signals from the device from different positions.
Against this background, the problem addressed by the present invention is to allow simplified testing of mobile devices.